


Thinking Space

by Leonawriter



Category: Pocket Monsters: Ruby & Sapphire & Emerald | Pokemon Ruby Sapphire Emerald Versions
Genre: Enemies to Friends, F/M, Friendship, Gen, NPC Point of View, Shipping Undertones
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-29
Updated: 2014-12-28
Packaged: 2018-03-04 03:09:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2907056
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Leonawriter/pseuds/Leonawriter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>She finds him at the top of Mount Chimney, and they spend a while realising how far they've come from a time when he'd so easily threatened to kill her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

She found him on the top of Mount Chimney, when she was told he wasn’t at the base. She’d flown there, not quite knowing what to expect, only that he hadn’t told anyone where was going, but that they’d trusted that he’d be able to take care of himself.

Tabitha had shrugged. “Leader Maxie said he’d be back in a while, and since it’s probably not anything important, it won’t take long. So you could just stick around here and wait. Or come back another day.”

She’d only been able to keep up short conversations, though, and had left not long after, saying that she had other places to be – and she’d meant to go back home, she _had_ , but somehow she’d found herself checking the Pokénav and heading to an active volcano.

It was strange. She could see him after only a few minutes of walking after using the cable car – the women who operated it telling her that she was only the second person that hour – and it was so different from last time. And yet at the same time, she could remember it just as clearly as if was all happening in front of her.

Magma and Aqua grunts fighting each other ghosted over the scenery in her imagination, their Poochyena tussling on the mountain, Tabitha losing his temper… and Maxie, in almost the same place as he was now.

She made her way over quietly, not wanting to disturb him when he seemed to be deep in thought.

Maxie was standing in the way he usually did – arms behind him, back straight. And yet there seemed a massive difference from her memories of how he used to be. Maybe it was so apparent because of the place.

“…So,” she said at last. “Odd place to go just to stand around looking at the scenery. Most people’d pick the view from a bit further away.”

Maxie glanced at her, an eyebrow twitching and a smile playing at his mouth for just a moment. She was relieved that he didn’t think she was intruding, or anything.

“I like to come up here to think sometimes.  It’s calming.”

She let out a light laugh, and shook her head, smiling. “You _would_ say that about a volcano.”

He stood a little straighter, as if to salve wounded pride.

“This place… it is constantly on the verge of waking up, threatening to bring down its destruction onto the world. It could become active, yet it is not. The molten lava which under other circumstances would be deadly, is currently as threatening as the hot springs in Lavaridge – as long as you don’t fall in, of course.”

May found herself nodding.

“It’s kind of like how Archie says – the calm before the storm.”

Maxie huffed. “I suppose. I still cannot see how you’re able to associate with that man, however.”

“Pot, kettle. He says the same thing to me about _you_.”

He turned to her, ready to argue the point, but she merely looked back at him with raised eyebrows until he relented, and then moments later he was back to staring into the distance.

It was starting to get dark, and with the darkness, the wind gained a chill factor that was only mitigated by the warm currents brought up from the lava below. May held her arms around her, partly because of the changes in temperature, partly because of the memories the place brought up.

“It’s funny though, isn’t it. The last time we were both here, you threatened to kill me.”

 _And now look at us,_ a small voice in her head was saying. _Talking like old friends and watching each other’s backs._

She almost missed the sudden tensing of Maxie’s frame, the slight hiss of breath before he regained his composure.

“I was a different man then, May,” he said carefully.

She nodded. “And I don’t think anyone’d been able to make me _that_ angry before we met in Slateport – you remember that, right?”

“Does this have a point, or are you merely amusing yourself by bringing up sour memories? Or is this all to… _humble_ me somehow? I’ll have you understand that I’ve had enough of the latter to last me several lifetimes, in the past few months alone. You needn’t further the cause.”

She walked around him, leaning on the inactive machine at the end of the walkway as leverage in order to look out over the edge for just a moment, before going back to the middle, deciding she much preferred the safety of not feeling like she was about to fall, even if she knew that her own Swellow – or Maxie’s Crobat, for that matter – would be able to catch her if she did.

“We’ve come a long way. That’s all.”

For a minute, he didn’t say a thing, and when she looked over he had an odd expression on his face that she couldn’t read.

“I’d like to think so. But for the moment, I think it’s about time we went back, don’t you agree?”

He had a point. The shadows were getting longer, and in a while they’d have to the light of either their Pokénavs or their Pokémon in order to see clearly.

She hid a shiver. There was that, too. Coming further away from the lava and its warm updrafts left them in the cold, and she’d left her warm things at home again, forgetting the vast difference between day and night over here.

She heard Maxie huff again, this time in amicable exasperation that she’d almost become used to, but she was left wondering what he was reacting to until she felt a weight drop onto her shoulders.

May reached up to inspect it, and felt familiar soft fabric.

“As only _one_ of us here has sleeves, I thought it only fair.”


	2. Cable Car Talk

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Only really a side fic, but something amusing I couldn't help but write.

“…Did I just see what I think I saw.”

The woman all but mouthed the words in her shock, which was still wearing off. It was habit now to default to the autopilot of polite customer service when the rich and famous used the cable car. That didn’t mean the reactions weren’t there underneath.

Her twin across the room was dealing with the same issue.

“If you think you just saw the reigning champion come down from the top of Mt. Chimney looking really…. _friendly_ , with the _leader of Team Magma_ …”

They shared a glance. So. They _hadn’t_ been seeing things.

The one looked over at the clock as it struck the hour, and they both relaxed, ready to close and lock the cable car for the night.

“Should we… you know. Tell anyone?”

“The two up top probably already know. We can ask them if they have, later.”

The other sent a meaningful glance.

“Yes, but. What about…?”

A huff.

“If they’re going to end up on the BuzzNav for it, someone else can out them. It’s none of _our_ business what people do up there. We just provide the transport.”

There was a pause, during which one shrugged, and the doors were locked, lights turned off, bags found. They’d go out through the staff area out back.

“…It did look kind of sweet though, didn’t it.”


End file.
